A PILOT accused of being drunk when due to fly 181 passengers across the Atlantic yesterday said he might have been boozing in his sleep.

James Yates, 46, told a court he seemed to have carried on drinking after going to bed following a bar crawl with fellow pilots. Of the whisky, he said: "I saw the bottle with about a third of it missing when I woke up."

The US pilot, who claimed he did "strange things" in his sleep, was held at Manchester Airport before his American Airlines flight to Chicago. He had six times a pilot's legal level of alcohol in his blood, the Manchester court heard.

Yates says he was reporting sick and denies acting as first officer while over the limit. The trial continues.